bobnjeff
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Posts posted by bobnjeff
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On 5/24/2023 at 3:45 AM, michelle028 said:
I'm after you!! It's definitely nice to read about current sailings on Splendida. I find it hard to find updated reviews online compared to ships that sail in North America.
We are currently on the Preziosa. Second of two cruises B2B. Absolutely wonderful cruises. Zero complaints. We’re very experienced cruisers having done over 40 mostly on Celebrity and Royal. We took Royal to get to these cruises and we sailed on Celebrity in December. MSC is leaps and bounds better than either. Beautiful ships, superb food, entertainment that is 10 times better than anything on any ship we’ve sailed. The crew onboard are truly incredible, amazing, excellent! Celebrity used to be almost this good many years ago but they have gone downhill dramatically. Forget about Royal. They have cut so many corners and pinched pennies so much it’s like the Walmart of cruise lines.
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On 5/20/2023 at 12:08 AM, michelle028 said:
When you order food off the mdr menu do they charge extra if you order say more than 1 appetizer or dessert?
I was on Royal earlier this year and they were actually encouraging us to try many different appetizers etc.
Let me know, I'm curious!
We’re on the Preziosa right now. You can order multiple appetizers and entrees and desserts at no extra charge. Food has been excellent. Beautiful ship. Zero complaints. Our first cruises on MSC. We are on the second of two B2B. We’ve been on over 40 cruises mostly on Celebrity and Royal but including Cunard and P&O. MSC currently is as good as Celebrity was many years ago when they were a truly fantastic company. Our December cruise on Celebrity was awful.
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Can anyone provide me with the email address of the department to send in my forms for the military discount?
Thank you.
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19 minutes ago, cruisegirl1 said:
They have two separate lines, one for those with reservations, and one for those without. We had reservations every night, but often the line without reservations was shorter so that was the line we got in. Some nights, little or no lines at all.
We were not seated with other parties, but sone tables were so close together, it seemed like were.
m
Did you ask to be seated alone or with others? In the past we were always offered by the host to be seated with others and it was quicker.
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How is seating handled in the main dining room? We have anytime dining booked for a transatlantic in April. We just got off the Celebrity silhouette and had anytime dining but if you hadn’t made reservations before the cruise when we got onboard we could only come to the dinner at 5:30 or 8:45. They also would not seat us with anyone else even when there were tables available to accommodate more. On the Jewel are people from different parties seated together in anytime dining? Do we have to make reservations ahead? If so when? In the fixed time dining room are people from different parties seated together or kept apart?
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We’re sailing on the Arcadia in October out of Southampton. Does P&O offer transportation service to Heathrow? If not can anyone give us advice as to how best to get there and typically what time we should expect it to take us to get there. Trying to figure out flights after the cruise to Rome.
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Best is to look at the overall ratings for the cruise lines. Why is P&O so far done the list? Only 54% rate it as good compared to 86% on Celebrity.
Celebrity does an amazing job at selling themselves as a premium line somehow better then others. But if you venture away from them you quickly learn they are no better than the others and worse than many. But many people just stick with one line.
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Wonderful to hear the good reports. We will stay with Freedom dining and enjoy the flexibility to dine when we want and to meet new folks along the way. Very much appreciate all the comments.
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Thank you. We never want a table for two. We do that at home every night. Part of cruising for us is meeting people from different places so we always ask to be seated with others. Our friends were concerned that there could be very long waits especially just as the dining room opens. We don’t mind waiting a little bit.
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Begging the question as to when you sailed P&O ?
We cruised on Britannia in December 2017 and the food was a disgrace, inedible in most cases so we had no alternative but to eat in the Beach House, Epicurean, Sindhu and the Limelight. Cost us a lot more than we planned but at least we were able to enjoy the food.
Least to say we will never cruise with P&O again.
We sailed last year on Arcadia one segment of the world cruise. Perhaps they make an effort to go all out for the world cruise.
We too have had horrible experiences on cruises with abysmal food. On a Trans Pacific cruise on Celebrity Solstice with 8 friends from other Celebrity cruises the food was just simply god awful. After 5 or 6 nights of at least 3 to 4 of us having more then one dish inedible in the main dining room we went to Tuscan Grill which was even worse and our meal cost was refunded. Needless to say all of us stopped sailing on X for some time. We went back on them this past September only to find little has improved and service is very bad. For us some the worst issues are simple freshness of ingredients like tomatoes for caprese, please do not offer this dish unless you have truly ripe tomatoes. The simple things like fresh melons and pineapples in the buffet at breakfast are never ever fresh on X. How many times can they sell me a fish dish only to find out that what they call Sole is really just Talapia again.
They amazing thing on the Arcadia was that every day of the 21 days when I went for fresh fruit in the morning it was ripe to perfection. Absolutely the most amazing peaches and pears. Cut melons and pineapple to die for. Fresh fish at dinner was cooked to perfection as well.
As I said maybe it was a one off on the world cruise but other so called Premium lines can be abysmal too.
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We’ve just booked the Oriana for July 2019 and chose Freedom Dining. Now friends have suggested there are issues with this. We usually like to eat around 7pm. Any thoughts or concerns about this? We usually prefer to join others randomly as we do on other cruise lines like RCCL and Celebrity. Thanks for the advice. Our only other experience with P&O was on the Arcadia which only had fixed seating.
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Hi, just to remember that service charges are far less on P&O - basically, there are none and it is left at your own discretion. Ok there are auto tips etc but this is very much up to what you want to do. Coming from the USA though I imagine that you will 'get' the whole 'tipping thing' anyway - unlike many from the UK.
Specialist restaurants are way cheaper - we love the Glass House and Beach House - and the alcohol policy for what you can bring onboard is more generous. OK P&O have changed now re one bottle of wine per person when embarking, but it also says alternatively 1 litre of spirits per person.
Bottles of water are way cheaper and you can order 6 1.5 litres of water for about £10 delivered to your cabin. This is much cheaper than when we have been on other US lines.
The food is more geared to the UK passengers as you would expect, but as long as you are happy to go with the flow you will have a great time.
Enjoy
:-)
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As everyone says food is very subjective but we have sailed mostly with Celebrity and RCCL we are Elite/Diamond. We now find the food on RCCL to be equal to or better than Celebrity. But judging by our one experience on P&O on the Arcadia the food on P&O is vastly superior to either RCCL or Celebrity. Quality and presentation are superb and service was beyond excellent. They remind me of how cruising used to be 20+ years ago. We never went to the extra pay restaurants on P&O. We have been to them on X and P&O’s food and service in the main dining room was equal to the best extra pay restaurant on X. We can’t wait to sail again on P&O.
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Hi,
We will be docking in Maui on Friday, April 20 and renting a car from Alamo from 8:30 a.m. until 4:30 p.m. I always like to follow cruise critic readers on their opinions which I have found to be really helpful.
Where should we go and what should we do? We have no problem driving anywhere but there is a lot of conflicting advice about driving halfway to Hana. Any suggestions will be greatly appreciated.
Thanks so much for your help.
Phyllis
We did this a few years ago. On Celebrity. We opted not to go to Hana. It is too far but we did go to Haleakala the volcano. Amazing drive and spectacular scenery from the top. It was a comfortable drive there and back and we stopped at a beach on our way back. There are driving guides to Hawaii you can download to your phone that will give you directions and a guided tour along the way.
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I'm the same..always start a G&L roll call when I go on a new cruise, rarely does anyone else reply, always makaes me wonder why not
Rod and Barry Australia
I realize some the cruises we choose are not your typical run of the mill stuff but we often run into family once onboard.
Do you guys know David Blake and David Smith from Edinburgh? Have you posted on his Facebook page? We met them years ago on a TA and then sailed with them from Sydney a few years ago. They were just in Sydney. We are coming to Sydney from Seattle on the Explorer of the Seas in October.
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I have tried using them over the past couple of years. Seems like they are dead. Almost no one ever post on them except the original poster.
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We were on deck 9. We had an internet repeater right outside our cabin but the service was very slow. The connection got dropped several times. I would seriously doubt one could do video. Email was a struggle at best. We are elite and get 90 minutes free. Would not pay for more at Celebrity’s prices.
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I could not agree more. If we cannot get there , then how the hell can we cruise????
Really! They have another cruise in the Adventure on the 7th of October that they say is a go. Huh! Good luck to those booked on it getting to San Juan. Shame on RCCL for not moving these cruises to a port that can handle these cruises until San Juan is fully back in order.
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Anyone flying to or from San Juan should check your airline. Southwest has canceled all flights through at least mid October. Currently there is no power, water, supplies, air conditioning etc at the airport. No control tower so only a dozen flights at most a day in or out. Getting to or from there will be a nightmare for sometime to come. RCCL should do the right thing and move all cruises embarking or disembarking there back to Florida until San Juan is fully back in working order.
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Hi!
If somebody is interested joining us on a half day tour in Ponta Delgada, Azores, to Sete Cidades you can contact me by email hexl2000.hb (a) gmail.com
The tour is 125 EUR per van.
BR
Helmut
Email sent.
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We are booked on Celebrity Constellation in December 2017 (we've done about 20 cruises, this is our first with Celebrity) . The ship sails from Abu Dhabi arriving in at Goa on 11th December and then onto Mumbai on 12th and 13th December.
Visas are required for India. An 'e' Visa costs about £60 and a full visa costs about £120 (pluscharges)). Celebrity Cruises have told us that we will need a full Visa. The Indian 'e' Visa support group (in India) and the Mumba Port Trust have told me . . . "an 'e' Visa is valid for inward immigration formalities at Goa and the outward immigration formalities on e-visa would be completed at Mumbai".
If the 2000 passengers on this ship are wrongly (?) told that they need a fullVisa when an 'e' visa will suffice that is an unnecessary cost to us of £120,000.
We have seen many instances of passengers not being allowed on the ship after failing to have a required piece of paper for this or that and we dare not take a chance. But what is irritating me is that I suspect that there is someone employed in'customer care' to ensure that the customers interests are cared for and although I understand that Indian Bureaucracy might be hard work how hard can it be for someone at Celebrity to get it in writing (as I have) that an 'e'visa will suffice and save us all £120,000?
We were just there. E Visas only work for flying into a few of the airports. You will need a full visa. Real pain in the you know where!
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I had forgot I get 90 minutes free internet. I can make that do - specially at over $300 for wifi for entire cruise. I think you will agree they are grossly overpricing a lot of add in's.
Are you guys staying in Tokyo after the cruise and if so how are you intending to get from the Port to Tokyo? The only thing listed on the Celebrity site is a 1/2 day tour with drop off at Narita - not much good if you are going downtown.
We are going to Kyoto first for four nights then five nights in Tokyo.
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Currently on Splendida..
in MSC Cruises
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We read a lot of negative reviews about MSC but decided to give it a try anyway. So, so so glad we did. We are on the Splendida next April from Cape Town to Genoa. Can’t wait!